The Octopus Returns

[protect freedom impeach bush now]

http://www.steamshovelpress.com/fromeditor24.html

"The Octopus Returns"
by Kenn Thomas

Here's a quick refresher paragraph on the Octopus:

Danny Casolaro was "suicided" in 1992 on the trail of the mother of all conspiracies, a transnational cabal manipulating world political events since World War II called The Octopus. Key to his research was a super-surveillance software called PROMIS, which was given to a crony of Ronald Reagan's as a pay off for the deliverance of $40 million to the Ayatollah Khomeini for the "October Surprise" -- holding on to the 52 American hostages in Iran until after Jimmy Carter lost the 1980 election. The crony profiteered from PROMIS (really owned by a company called Inslaw) by selling it to police agencies throughout the world for the purpose of tracking criminals and extrapolating their next moves.

Feral House plans a new edition of the book The Octopus: Secret Government and the Death of Danny Casolaro. Casolaro's own notes - those that didn't disappear the night he died - provided the basis of the book, which I co-wrote with another celebrated conspiracy writer, Jim Keith. That first edition came out in 1996 and is now a bit of a collector's item, costing about $100 on amazon if you can find a copy.

Like all great conspiracy writers, Casolaro was dismissed as a paranoid crank. The book's existence as a kind of cult classic testifies to how cutting-edge parapolitical insight is pushed into an underground of the few who care to know. It's re-emergence now, however, has an eerie, although not unsurprising, parallel with events and people easily recognizable to the wider world. The Octopus, the real one, has returned just in time for the book.

[protect freedom impeach bush now]

1. Examples

more........

Example one:

shortly after the Afghanistan war stories began circulating that Osama Bin Laden was using the PROMIS extrapolation function to avoid capture. According to these stories, it was given to him via a circuitous route from the Russians who got it from the famed turncoat spy Robert Hanssen.



Example two:

the June resignation of Paul Redmond, Assistant Secretary of Information Analysis for the US Homeland Security department. Described by some as a "legendary spy catcher" - he had a role in the capture of CIA traitor Aldrich Ames - Redmond officially resigned for "health reasons." Most took that as polite cover for Redmond's frustration with under-funding of the department, but others connected into to a rumored secret investigation Redmond was conducting of long-standing common interests between the Bush and bin Laden families and was forced to resign. Among the connections: PROMIS, also had been given to Saddam Hussein by the senior Bush in the early 1990s, and he too now uses it to avoid capture. Danny Casolaro had reported that Iraq was among the countries that originally purchased the software illegally.



Example three:

Casolaro had also written about John Poindexter, one of the few people convicted in the Iran-contra scandal, a trading-with-the-enemy affair that grew out of the October Surprise. An appeals court overturned his five 1990 felony convicitions, however, and more recently Poindexter was appointed head of a new information technology unit of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Pentagon agency that developed the internet. This new DARPA unit was called Total Information Awareness. Symbolized on its website and on a wall decoration in Poindexter's office by an eye over a pyramid - a tip of the hat that he worked for secret masters -- it's purpose was to further develop PROMIS-like software that could track every detail of every American citizen's life.

In July, Poindexter was forced to resign from the administration when it was discovered that DARPA's TOI also was developing a futures trading market based on the prediction of terrorist events. Of course, a short-selling spree on the real market made a fortune for someone just after the destruction of the World Trade Towers, so someone was already pretty good at predicting terrorist events.



Examples four and five:

the central conspiracy that concerns even the major media now is the role of the Saudis in the 9/11 disasters. Casolaro had written about the al-Yamama aerospace contract umbrella that keeps US and British money flowing into Saudi Arabia. He focused on the career of arms merchant Adnan Khashoggi, who helped develop the contracts, and his partner, Manucher Ghorbanifar. Back in March, because of meetings Khashoggi set up with Bush defense adviser Richard Perle to privately profiteer from the still pending war in Iraq, Perle was also forced to resign. This month it has been reported that Pentagon underlings for the Undersecretary of Defense Douglas Feith, have been meeting with Manucher Ghorbanifar, unauthorized by Dubya, of course.

The pattern of resignations is erupting around the edges of the Octopus entity that Casolaro began to delineate back in the late 80s/early 90s. The low-level, limited hang-out resignations more or less shield the central creature from true exposure. The compliant press helps with that, of course, not having enough historical memory to see the pattern. The only memory it has of Danny Casolaro is that he had whacky conspiracy "theories".
The new book looks at all of this and much else concerning The Octopus, Casolaro's original research as well as how it illuminates what now goes on in the post 9/11 warfare world.

[DUreader]

3. Something was going on at Ptech similar to the promis thing.

Anyone remember that fizzled story?

[starroute]

9. Ghorbanifar's name came up in a thread earlier today

Acting through a prominent conservative with friends at the Pentagon, a central figure in the Iran-Contra scandal has passed allegations to the Bush administration that enriched uranium was smuggled from Iraq into Iran five years ago and some may remain hidden in Iraq.

The intermediary, Michael Ledeen, said the CIA failed to aggressively check out the allegations because of its long-held distrust of Manucher Ghorbanifar, the middleman in the Iran-Contra arms-for-hostages deals of the Reagan years.

The CIA agrees it is skeptical of information from Ghorbanifar, saying he has "proven to be a fabricator."

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=169725

So add Ledeen's name into the mix, along with Perle and Feith.

[Stephanie]

2. As I recall, Casolaro died in a motel room?

A supposed suicide. But there were very strange things awry in the room. Do you remember the details? And his notebook was missing. And he had told his brother something might happen to him.

[Octafish]

4. In West Virginia, where he'd gone to get the scoop from a CIA

... source he told his friends would blow the lid off the Octopus. The guy was found in a bathtub, busted wine glass, wrists slashed, an apparent suicide. The maid said it looked like someone tried cleaining up some of the blood on the floor, because a towel had been used to mop the floor and was kicked under a sink.

The next day, Daniel Casolaro's body was embalmed, making it almost impossible to discover if he had been drugged before his wrists were slashed, etc. It's also against the law to embalm someone in WV before an autopsy, but heck, when did the law ever stop the BFEE?

From the Catbird Seat:

By mid-summer there were two good reasons to worry about the security of phone lines. In late July and early August two reporters who had been working on the BCCI story were killed. The first was a reporter for the Financial Times named Anson Ng, who was found dead in his apartment in Guatemala City, Guatemala. The story was recounted by Senator Alan Cranston before the Kerry subcommittee:

"First, according to people who talked by phone with Ng in the days before his death, the British journalist mentioned that he was working on a quote, big story, unquote, related to BCCI and Guatemala. Second, although officials in Guatemala have sought to characterize Ng's assassination as the work of common criminals, the murder seems to be the work of professional hit men. . . . Apparently a silencer was used in the killing, which was done by a single bullet wound to the head. . . . I am told that Ng's head was wrapped in a towel and his body left in the bathroom, something consistent with efforts to keep the murder secret for a period of time. According to those closest to Ng, a set of documents were stolen from his desk."

Less than two weeks later a similar story hit much closer to home. On August 10, a Washington, D.C., freelance writer named Danny Casolaro, who had also been working on BCCI as part of a larger story, was found dead in a Martinsburg, West Virginia, motel room. He was discovered in a bathtub surrounded by a pool of blood.

Though it was immediately ruled a suicide, there were enough unanswered questions that the press jumped all over the story. He had supposedly killed himself by slashing his wrists - except that the cuts had been phenomenally deep, all the way through the tendons. There was also evidence that someone else had been in the room with him.

"It looked like someone tried to wipe up the blood on the floor and slid the towels under the sink," one of the motel's housekeepers said in a magazine interview.

CONTINUED...

http://www.the-catbird-seat.net/BCCI.htm

Here's another excellent overview:

http://WWW.COPI.com/articles/guyatt/octopus.html

[Stephanie]

5. Right. And I was told that the cuts were so deep that

it would have been impossible for him to slash the second wrist with the injured first wrist.

I wish the best of luck to Kerry, just because he KNOWS about all this.

[Octafish]

6. And THAT's why I support Sen. Kerry. He's the best chance we got ...

... of kicking the Little Turd back to Crawford and the Octopus out of Washington. It's also why so many career diplomats, intel, state department, Pentagon, and other types are behind John Kerry. They KNOW whose side he's on.

[seventhson]

10. Yeah. Right. Kerry let the Bushes WALK on this

No mention of BUSH at all in either of his famous reports on BCCI and Iran-Contra-Cocaine.

Kerry's a coverup artist for the BFEE

I am NOT shitting you

[Clete]

7. Gee, I thought this was a commentary on California's new Governor.

Governor Gropenator of course.

[Octafish]

8. Hmm. Same crime family.

I almost can't believe Maria married the Schickelgroper. Then I think of what happened to her uncles and cousins and I see that she would want to be protected. That kind of protection, though...ugh.

[cosmicdot]

11. What did the Senate committee base wrapping things up on?

Probably similar to the WashPost reporter who wrote the August 10, 1991, story.

After reading that story, it never left me.

I couldn't believe it, the story, just went away. So, I emailed the writer to see what new had been learned.

((I had to first research and find a copy of the article to learn the reporter's name ... I can't recall now ... I'm thinking it was Karl Vick ... but, not 100% positive))

I could sense a wouldn't-touch-the-story-with-a-50-foot-pole in the response. Very uncommital - just a ... if you learn of anything let us know ... gee ... ya'd think the investigative reporter would have that curiosity.

Yes, the Octopus still lives because investigations, as far as it is known, just ended. Case closed.

The Inslaw case has been at the center of an intensive legal battle since 1983. Company owners Bill and Nancy Hamilton charge that the Justice Department stole $6 million worth of computer software from them that had been designed to help law enforcement officials track cases. Inslaw has alleged in court that department officials in the Reagan administration then used "trickery, fraud and deceit" and harassed the firm in an effort to drive it out of business. A House Judiciary subcommittee isinvestigating the case.

The Justice Department rejects the charges, however, and the case has been entangled in court for eight years.

Friends and relatives strongly suspect foul play, though they presented no evidence of it. They cited what they called the strange coincidence of Casolaro's death and the research into the controversial Inslaw case. "He had been researching this thing for a long time and was very excited about the information he was finally getting," said Benjamin Mason, a close friend of Casolaro's who met with him last Tuesday, the day before he left for Martinsburg. "He was in good spirits and very excited about the source he was going to see in West Virginia.

"There is no way in the world that he would have killed himself," added Mason, the last acquaintance to see Casolaro alive. from
AREA WRITER INVESTIGATING INSLAW CASE FOUND DEAD
FREELANCER WENT TO MEET SOURCE, FRIENDS SAY by Gary Lee Washington Post Staff Writer
August 13, 1991; Page a8

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I searched the WashPost archives, and the August 10th 1991 articles doesn't come up. hmmmmmm


Your search for ( ( YMD_date=( 01/01/1991 - 12/31/1991 ) ) ) and ( ( Casolaro ) ) returned 9 article(s), listed below, out of 9 matching your terms.


You can search The Washington Post archives for free, but a fee will be charged to see the full text of any article published more than two weeks ago. Stories published in the past 14 days are available at no cost on our main search page.



WHAT KILLED DANNY CASOLARO?
THE REPORTER HAD A LOT OF FRIENDS. DID HE HAVE AN ENEMY?
Article 1 of 9 found
Kim Masters Washington Post Staff Writer
August 31, 1991; Page d1
Section: STYLE
Word Count: 2616

Danny Casolaro liked hanging out in bars, nursing along a beer. He liked pretty women. He liked Tom Waits and Randy Newman. He liked Hemingway. But most of all, perhaps, he liked his friends.


"You're going to find 50 people who come up to you and say, 'I was his best friend.' That's how Danny made people feel," a friend said a few days after Casolaro's body was found in a Martinsburg, W. Va., hotel.

Ann Klenk says Casolaro "could make a Friday night

Click for complete article

ANOTHER CASUALTY IN THE 'OCTOPUS' CASE
Article 2 of 9 found
JACK ANDERSON


DALE VAN ATTA
August 28, 1991; Page d16
Section: STYLE
Word Count: 627
Joseph Daniel Casolaro, the freelance journalist who thought he was on to the biggest story of his life -- a story he called "the octopus"


-- is not the only investigative reporter to die while chasing the tentacles of that octopus.

Casolaro's body was found Aug. 10 in a hotel room in Martinsburg, W.Va., his wrists slashed. On March 31, 1990, the body of British journalist Jonathan Moyle was found hanging from a closet rail in his hotel room in Santiago, Chile.

Although

Click for complete article

FREQUENT DRINKING MARKED WRITER CASOLARO'S FINAL DAYS
Article 3 of 9 found
Robert O'Harrow Jr.


Gary Lee Washington Post Staff Writers
August 25, 1991; Page a19
Section: A SECTION
Word Count: 1554
Joseph Daniel Casolaro woke from a night of barhopping Aug. 8 and left home for Martinsburg, W.Va. The trip, the Fairfax writer told friends, was to meet with a key source in his probe into a ring of government corruption


Two days later, shortly before 1 p.m. on Aug. 10, Casolaro's body was found in his room at the Martinsburg Sheraton in a tub of bloody water.

A retrace of Casolaro's final days indicates that his time in Martinsburg was marked by frequent drinking and moments

Click for complete article

WRITER'S PAPERS SHED LITTLE LIGHT ON HIS DEATH
CASOLARO SOUGHT TO PROVE 'OCTOPUS' THEORY ENCOMPASSING HOSTAGE DELAY, INSLAW, BCCI
Article 4 of 9 found
Gary Lee Washington Post Staff Writer
August 19, 1991; Page a9
Section: A SECTION
Word Count: 901

Ever since Joseph Daniel Casolaro's death was described by relatives and friends as a possible murder because the writer "knew too much"


about an alleged government conspiracy, authorities and journalists have tried to pinpoint what it was that he knew and why he might have been killed for it.

But neither the summary Casolaro wrote of his research nor analyses of his notes and papers provided by his family to journalists from ABC News and Time magazine have provided clues

Click for complete article

SUMMER OF THE OCTOPUS
Article 5 of 9 found
MARY McGRORY
August 18, 1991; Page c1
Section: OUTLOOK
Word Count: 974

ONE THING in the sad murk is clear: Before he died, Danny Casolaro saw an octopus. He told his friend Bill Hamilton about it. The tentacles reached into all the scandals we are grappling with in this summer of conspiracies unlimited


The body of free-lance writer Joseph Daniel Casolaro was found in the bathtub of a West Virginia motel on a week ago Saturday. His arms were slashed. Martinsburg police pronounced it a suicide and proceeded to embalm the body with extraordinary haste -- before

Click for complete article

INSLAW PROBER HAD FINANCIAL WORRIES
EVIDENCE OF DESPONDENCY SURFACES IN INQUIRY INTO POSSIBLE SUICIDE
Article 6 of 9 found
Gary Lee


Robert O'Harrow Jr. Washington Post Staff Writers
August 17, 1991; Page a4
Section: A SECTION
Word Count: 906
As West Virginia officials compile a psychological profile to help determine whether Joseph Daniel Casolaro committed suicide, information has surfaced indicating that in recent months the Fairfax City writer had financial problems and was increasingly despondent about them


Casolaro had taken at least two loans to finance a book he was researching on an alleged government conspiracy, according to his brother, Anthony Casolaro. But shortly before his death, he had received rejections of

Click for complete article

FAMILY DISPUTES SUICIDE IN INSLAW PROBER'S DEATH
OFFICIALS BACK FINDING, BUT CONTINUE PROBE
Article 7 of 9 found
Gary Lee


Robert O'Harrow Jr. Washington Post Staff Writers
August 16, 1991; Page a1
Section: A SECTION
Word Count: 1208
West Virginia authorities said yesterday a preliminary finding that investigative journalist Joseph Daniel Casolaro committed suicide is supported by multiple slash wounds to his arms and no sign of a struggle in the Martinsburg hotel room where his body was discovered. But they are continuing an investigation of the death


Casolaro's associates and relatives continued to insist that his death could not have been a suicide. They offered new information to support their belief that

Click for complete article

HOMICIDE NOT RULED OUT IN DEATH OF WRITER PROBING INSLAW
Article 8 of 9 found
Robert O'Harrow Jr.


Gary Lee Washington Post Staff Writers
August 14, 1991; Page a4
Section: A SECTION
Word Count: 939
West Virginia authorities said yesterday they were exploring the possibility that Joseph Daniel Casolaro, a freelance writer found dead Saturday in Martinsburg, was the victim of a homicide even though apparent slash marks were found around his wrists. "At this point nothing is ruled out," said Cynthia Gaither, an assistant Berkeley County prosecutor


Local medical officials have begun an autopsy of Casolaro's body, which was discovered in a bathroom at the Martinsburg Sheraton

Click for complete article

AREA WRITER INVESTIGATING INSLAW CASE FOUND DEAD
FREELANCER WENT TO MEET SOURCE, FRIENDS SAY
Article 9 of 9 found
Gary Lee Washington Post Staff Writer
August 13, 1991; Page a8
Section: A SECTION
Word Count: 649

A Washington-area freelance writer was found dead in a Martinsburg, W.Va., hotel Saturday in the midst of investigating an eight-year-old politically charged dispute between the Justice Department and the Inslaw Co., a local computer software firm


Daniel Casolaro was discovered in the Martinsburg Sheraton after telling friends that he was going to West Virginia to meet a source who had intimate knowledge of the Inslaw case. Hotel employees found the 44-year-old Fairfax man in a bathtub with
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and, what's up with Michael Riconosciuto